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*Rise of the Warspite*
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by HappyTarget: [QB] Decided to rewrite chapter one. :( Needed to get my mind off of the horror for a while. :mad: GOD DAMN F**KING TERRIORIST BASTARDS!!!!!! Hope they like warm weather, cause where they're going its warm 24/7!!! The victims of this dastardly attack are in my prayers. Any way, here's Chapter One redone much better. Hope it gives a little happiness on this miserable day. CHAPTER 1 The twin suns shone brightly down on the planet of Manticore from high overhead. Within the city limits of the capital of Landing, people were going about the mundane tasks of their daily lives. A small restaurant was doing a brisk business during the noon meal. It was a pleasant looking place, with warm red brick walls and large windows with red and white curtains. Inside it was designed like an old earth bistro. Its name was The Cerberus Restaurant. What its happy patrons didn’t know was what hid beneath that fa�ade. Through a back door lied a hidden elevator. At the bottom of the deep shaft lies a room. It is well insulated and protected from the outside world. Its banks of computers housed millions of gigaquads of information. People manned this room's terminals around the clock. They were constantly sifting through the vast quantities of information, always searching for items that could be of use. Their shadowy organization had sources ranging from a ghost link to the Department of Defense's computer network, to a plant in the primeminister's office, to near instant access to every major, and most minor, news feeds throughout the entire planetary system. All terminal operators were expert hackers. If a trail of desirable info presented itself, they would follow it until every path was exhausted. One such had the beginnings of a smile on his face as he scanned his assigned block of information. He went over it twice to be sure, then paged his boss feeling sure he would get promoted for bringing this to the organizations attention. The Director entered the room minutes later. She was a short, heavyset woman with completely gay hair, wearing a simple gray business suit. Her only adornment was a pair of tiny wolf's head earrings, ruby eyes glittering when they caught the light. They were almost hidden by shoulder length hair. She had the air of a grandmother about her, with pronounced laugh lines and wrinkles creasing her cherubic face. She looked completely harmless, except for one small flaw in her mask… her eyes. They were the eyes of a predator. The blue/green orbs seemed to stare into a person's very soul, uncaring and detached. Upon looking over the information block, a wild grin sprouted on her wrinkled vissage. With this data, it would be possible to execute Operation Renegade on schedule. The warm smile turned ice cold and her eyes flashed in a way no mere grandmother's should. She deleted the data block and any ties to it from the system. Going all the way to the top of the organization had made covering your tracks and ruthlessness a common currency for her. Making a mental note to have the hacker disposed of as well, she turned on her heel and walked back through the double doors to the hidden elevator. Thaddeus Armstrong had become a major player in a very dangerous game. The kicker was he didn’t know a thing about it. The courier ship completed its download and commenced receiving the outgoing messages. One of those downloaded messages went to the commander of Her Majesty's Naval Forces stationed at Klein Station. Rear Admiral of the Red Sir Peter Thanguae was the commanding officer of the system's picket. Thanks to prolong treatments, he didn’t look a day over 25 years old, despite being over 130. Admiral Peter was imposingly tall at almost seven feet. His jet-black hair was perpetually swept straight back from his forehead, giving all that saw him an unobstructed view of his haunted brown eyes. He was looking over star charts and Peoples Republic of Haven fleet dispositions when his com system beeped. Peter rolled his chair over to the terminal and activated it. What appeared on his screen initially was a simple text message: One of THEM is under your very command! The message stayed up for five seconds, then was replaced by paperwork and receipts that both shocked and enraged Sir Peter. He roared around his office, trashing furniture until he finally collapsed in a broken heap on the floor. He dragged himself into his adjacent quarters and fell into bed. Weeping bitter tears, it took him hours to finally fall into a troubled sleep. When they were sure he was asleep, his staff officers and his steward set about quietly cleaning up his office. They were used to his infrequent outbursts by now. He had never been the same man ever since that fateful day. They couldn’t blame him, if they were in his shoes they might not be able to hold it together as well as he has. He was a good man who had had his life shattered by events outside of his control. Lt. Cmdr. Thaddeus Armstrong was nervous, but outwardly he looked totally calm. He sat in his chair, bristly black hair mostly covered by the white beret of a starship captain. His lively baby blue eyes roaming the bridge agitatedly were the only external sign of his disquiet. Recently, his CO had taken to giving him the more dangerous jobs that came up as a matter of course for a system picket. Thad and his ship, HMS Victory, had been assigned as the only escort to three superdreadnought sized merchantmen to the nearby system of Mendoza. Orders were orders but these were virtual suicide if the convoy ran into any major opposition. Thad had tried to voice his concerns, but the Admiral had dismissed him before he had barely said three words. He still could not figure out why Sir Peter had suddenly went from distant but friendly CO to one seemingly out to get him. When he got back to Klein Station, he intended to have a talk with Sir Peter. He needed to get to the bottom of what was eating the Admiral in order to prevent unnecessary future danger to his ship and crew. Thad blanked his mind, translation to n-space was coming up and he needed to be totally concentrated if the shit hit the fan. The four ships of the convoy translated smoothly across the alpha wall and reverted to normal space. Their Warshawski sails were quickly reconfigured to impeller wedges, then began accelerating towards the inner system and safety. The ships formed up into a warped diamond formation, the three merchies in the back with the Victory dropping in to the far front point of the arrangement. This way, the destroyer could be in the best position to cover all three merchants' form the most likely course of attack, ahead of them. If there were any commerce raiders or pirates here, they would set up further in system so they could move into a position to meet incoming prey. Then all they had to do was lie in wait until their prey was in weapons range, power up their wedge and attack. That’s what I would do in their place, Thad thought to himself, I just hope like hell that they haven't! The Peoples Republic of Haven Light Cruiser PNS Troubador's sensors picked up the hyper footprint of the four ships. Her captain had an intercept point generated. All he had to do was go to that point and wait. His prey would come to him, making his job much easier. They would be far away from the inner system and its collection of picket ships that it would all be over before they even began to respond. By the time they got to the intercept point, he would be gone and all they would find would be debris. His sensor operator told him that it looked like a convoy of three merchies and only one escort, a destroyer at that. The intercept brought the enemy nearly into a perfect down the throat shot. This is going to be to easy, the Peep captain thought. Recon drones raced ahead of the Manticoran ships. They were very good at their job, yet even their advanced sensors missed the powered down Havenite ship until it was almost too late. Weapons Officer Lt. Jennifer Yuki scowled at her console as that intermittent sensor ghost appeared again. Her green oriental eyes stared intently at her board as she absent mindedly twirled a strand of her reddish/brown hair. Then the contact firmed up. She gasped in surprise and dread. "Captain, there's a Peep cruiser in front of us!" "Shit… execute plan Epsilon four now!" That plan called for a rapid change in bearing of all four ships. They would turn right 90 degrees off of their current heading. "Sound the alert again." Expecting trouble, Thad had gone to general just before exiting hyper. Even as Thaddeus issued his orders the Peep opened fire. Thad's quick response managed to save two of the merchantmen, but not the third. The helmsman had been just a second too slow in executing the turn. Counter missiles raced to intercept the deadly salvo, but three of them got through the barrage and exploded right in front of the merchies open throat. Since she was a merchantman, she mounted nothing in the way of defense and very little armor. The Havenite missiles detonated, sending powerful lasers deep into the merchie. She never stood a chance, exploding seconds later in a blinding boil of white light. "Scatter the formation! Transmit a distress call to system command. Helm, plot an intercept course bearing…", Thad checked his repeaters, "324 mark 887!" "But captain, that will take us closer to the Peep!" the helmsman wailed. "Just do it damn it, we need to buy those two merchies some time to get to safety!" Seeing the destroyer coming at him and the merchies turning to run, presenting him only their belly bands as targets, the Havenite captain decided to deal with the Manty warship first. He could always run down the merchantmen later with his superior acceleration. The Peep light cruiser turned to engage the outclassed Manticoran destroyer, launching another salvo of missiles at the oncoming ship. The Victory shook as if grabbed by an angry god. Massive bomb pumped X-ray laser beams savaged her side, opening compartments to space. Of the first eight-missile salvo, one had slipped past the counter missiles and point defense laser clusters to hit the starboard sidewall. By some miracle, it missed all the weapon mounts and slashed deep into the ship. It was a touch, yet not a deadly one. Depressurization alarm klaxons started their mournful wail. Pressure doors slammed into place to contain atmosphere within undamaged sections. Thaddeus Armstrong issued orders rapid fire. "Roll the ship! Execute attack plan Theta! Initiate damage control procedures!" A chorus of ayes circled the bridge. They knew the odds, yet no one said anything. They had a job to do, and they would go down fighting. The Victory waited for the next gap in the enemies' fire, then rolled left and launched all missiles on the port broadside. Thad thought, 'If only we didn't have two helpless merchantmen to protect, then we could run away. Instead, I have to sacrifice my entire crew to buy them time to get away.' The Peep Light Cruiser PNS Troubador was slightly more than the Victory could handle. It only out massed the Victory by 10,000 tons, yet those extra tons included more armor and four more missile tubes per broadside. Fortunately, the more advanced ECM and ECCM of the Manty destroyer nearly evened out the ships firepower wise… nearly. Even as Thad thought to himself, a fresh salvo of eight missiles spewed from the enemy. At the next opportunity, the weapons officer rolled ship and launched four missiles at the cruiser. They bored in on the enemy, jinking on preprogrammed evasive patterns. Their superior ECM allowed 3 to streak past as the counter missiles spat at them. Last ditch laser clusters tried to stab them, but they were too late. One more died at their hands, yet the other two continued on to explode. One hit the sidewall, which held back almost all of the laser heads X-ray fury. The other missile streamed in and exploded in a pincushion of destruction. Thanks to the other warhead, the Peep's sidewall was nearly gone. Bomb pumped lasers slashed in virtually unopposed, cutting deep into the ship. "Captain! We got 'em good, her accell is slowing and there are two less missiles in her latest salvo! We must have hit a few of her nodes… accell still decreasing," the weapons officer, Jennifer Yuki announced with a quaver of hope in her voice. "Now down to 45 000 gravities! Captain, she won't be able to catch the merchies before they meet up with the system picket! You did it sir!" The mood on the bridge lightened considerably at that. They had saved the merchantmen. They were still going to die, yet they had done their duty. The missile strike had also taken out two launch tubes because only six spat out at the Victory. 'That still meant six missiles vs. four in every other salvo but it was better than eight to four for both like it had been when he started the engagement', the captain thought. Aloud, he said, "Good job Guns, now do it again." Everyone on the bridge nestled deep in the ship had his or her skinsuits on, helmets locked tight. The enemy salvo came into attackable range. Due to the superior sensors and weapons of the Victory, four were intercepted by counter missiles, and another two by the last ditch laser clusters. Two bored in on the stricken destroyer. The ship bucked as the lasers struck. One struck on the sidewallless starboard side, gouging through the armor and striking laser six and missile three. The other struck soon after, hitting the fire control sensors and gutting the remaining armament on the ships starboard side. A wall exploded on the bridge, cutting the communications console, and its unfortunate operator, in half. Thad heard the hiss of slowly escaping air before the warning light in his helmet lit. A small piece of shrapnel had cut a small groove through his suit and into his arm. He quickly applied a patch to his suit. No time to check; the wound didn’t seem deep anyway. Everyone left on the bridge was buttoned up tight against the hard vacuum that now permeated the bridge. "Fire control, missile one and two and laser six are gone on our starboard side. We're blind on that broad side now--good thing there are no more tubes left in action there." Lt. Yuki said. "Roll the ship, get our exposed side out of danger! Execute attack with port tubes as they bear." "Aye sir!" The four missiles took flight. Streaking away at over 80,000 gravities, the flight time was less than a minute. Either because of damaged sensors or luck, three evaded the counter missiles and the storm of PD lasers to strike the Peep. The first one wasted itself on the belly band of the cruisers impeller wedge. Number two hit amidships, wiping away three missile tubes in a lucky hit. The last must have been guided by divine intervention because it exploded directly in front of the open rear throat of the Peeps wedge. Malevolent lasers slashed deep into the ship, eventually finding main engineering and the fusion bottle. One second the cruiser was there, the next a blinding ball of light, its fusion plant taking out the ship when the containment field failed. Left behind was one savagely mauled destroyer, limping its way back to the inner system at only half of its max rated speed. One quarter of her company were dead or missing. The ship seemed to bleed as atmosphere and debris vented from her clawed sides. The ship seemed to vibrate as a cheer rose up from the surviving crew. Blind luck had let them live to fight another day… hopefully it would be as kind the next time. It had been a near thing. Thad had harbored virtually no thoughts of coming through this alive. Peep or no, that had still been a cruiser and he only had a destroyer. Oh, he would have mauled that cruiser pretty good, but all he thought he could do was buy some time for the merchantmen to escape. He uttered a short prayer of thanks to whichever god had spared his crew and ship. Another was sent to have them look after the souls of those gone, then started giving commands again. He still had a ship to get back to spacedock. There would be time to grieve later, when those he could still save were out of danger. Wanted to make Sir Peter more human and less of a Jackass. Also wanted to introduce The Director sooner than I initially planned. Also wanted to add parts to flesh out the initial battle. Hence major changes to chapter one. May god bless and look after the victims from the WTC, the airliners, and the Pentagon. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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